§ 44:40 — Additional copies of records; purchase of equipment; funds available for payment;

Louisiana § 44:40

• Jurisdiction: Louisiana
• Title 44: Public Records and Recorders

Text

§40. Additional copies of records; purchase of equipment; funds available for payment;
copies of suit records
A. The several clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers of conveyances
and recorders of mortgages, throughout the state, are hereby authorized at their option to
make additional copies*, by any means authorized by R.S. 44:116, of every nature and kind
in their custody by virtue of their various official capacities as such clerks of court and ex
officio recorders and registers of conveyances and recorders of mortgages, filed or recorded
in their offices prior to July 29, 1964, and subsequent thereto.
B. Such clerks of court and ex officio recorders and registers are hereby authorized
to purchase the necessary equipment for photorecording, photocopying, microfilming, or
electronic imaging, to lease such equipment or to contract with competent independent
contractors, or both, according to the discretion of the clerks of court and ex officio recorders
and registers, to cause the records described in this Section to be copied and reproduced.
C. Each such clerk of court and ex officio recorder and register is hereby authorized
to defray the cost of copying, reproducing, and retrieving the records described in this
Section out of any funds available in the clerk's salary fund.
D. In the parish of Orleans the judges of the civil district court and the criminal
district court, and in the remainder of the state the respective police juries or other governing
authorities of the several parishes, are authorized to provide the necessary funds, when such
funds are not already available, to enable said clerk of courts and ex officio recorders and
registers to carry out the provisions of this section.
E. Notwithstanding the provisions of Subsection A of this Section or any other
provision of law to the contrary, prior to destroying the original criminal records and any
other records of every nature and kind that are deemed permanent under a record retention
and disposal schedule adopted by the secretary of state and the clerks of court in accordance
with R.S. 44:410 and 411, the destruction of which is authorized by R.S. 13:917, the several
clerks of court, including the clerks of the Criminal or Civil District Courts for the parish of
Orleans, shall make and retain in their custody a copy of such records electronically on
nonrewritable magnetic, optical, or laser-type storage media, including but not limited to
CD-ROM. No cause of action for any claim shall exist against a clerk of court for any
damage or loss resulting from the destruction of an original record after proper preservation
of the record in accordance herewith. However, all records in suits affecting records relating
to immovable property, or adoption, interdiction, successions, trusts, or emancipation created
prior to 1922 shall be retained in their original form.
F. Repealed by Acts 2012, No. 101, §3, eff. May 11, 2012.
*As appears in enrolled bill.

Legislative History

Acts 1958, No. 350, §§1 to 4. Amended by Acts 1964, No. 415, §1; Acts 1972, No. 498, §§1, 2; Acts 1978, No. 365, §1; Acts 1978, No. 396, §1; Acts 2012, No. 101, §§2, 3, eff. May 11, 2012; Acts 2017, No. 173, §3.